What are my best options?

I've played SL off and on since January, but seem to spend money as soon as I make it (I make my money by camping and doing surveys.) I've thought about getting a premium account, but I have an MMO history of canceling/returning depending on my real life money situation - and don't want to end up losing out on any investments I would make on land if I cancel.

So here's what I see my options being for a steady SL income:

1.) Go premium, and rent out my free land, hope the stipend and rent I get would cover the RL premium account and still post a profit.

2.) Go premium, open a store with merchandise and an ATM, hope to make enough money in RL to pay for the SL premium account while still posting an SL profit.

3.) Save up enough money to rent a piece of land, open a store with merchandise and an ATM, in hopes of overcoming rent costs and posting a profit.

I am not much of a designer, nor do I have great graphical skills. Chances are the merch I would sell would be packages from free areas.

So which sounds best? And if you could, really break it down for me - how much profit would come in from an ATM and merchandise acquired at a freebie place? Would rent and stipend ever have a chance of covering the cost of an account with money left over? Are there any other options I'm missing?

If you sell packages from free areas everyone in SL will mock you, send you abusive messages, and basically get really pissed off. It's not a cool thing to do.

I'd stick with renting a plot and developing a skill.

4) Stay Basic and spend the money you would on teh Premium Account on L$, buying the L$ instead of camping to save you time so you can enjoy the world more.

Buying land and starting a store are great! If that's what you want to do. I gather you're not all entralled about running a Second Job *grins* If you want to try, look around for some places with nice traffic and lower rent on rental stalls. Pay week to week though be prepared for a slow start.

Past that, renting land in hopes of "making it big" is chancy at best. If you have the talent, then you can. I didn't when I started. I'm not saying you can't, just something to think and plan for.

I think with buying L$ with money you'd just see go to waste on land you don't even want except to earn money to pay for that land would be a better option.

~Jessy

I don't know what your best options are but this would be right there at the bottom of your worst. Unless you have no scruples.

Yeah reselling freebies is a quick ticket to douchedom, if you ask me.

Jessica just gave you the best option - Option 4: Buy Lindens instead of wasting your time camping and filling out surveys. $10.00 will get you, what? 2500L? That's a whole heck of a lot of camping. If you have been living off of your camping income, unless you're running a string of campbots or something, then 2500L should last you a while. If you are not sure you'll be around a while, you have no commitment to stay. Rent land and just stop renting when you leave.

Just about anyone can come up with $10. A new game for the PC is going to run you $50, and the expansion pack another $20, minimum. That's $70! How much is WoW per month? SL is WAY more economical. You can have days and days of fun on $70.00. A game is only replayable so many times. The economics of SL work in your favor. Once you have bought some cash, you will have a lot more time to play as well, because you won't be spending your time in camping chairs or filling out those surveys. It's all fun and games after that.

BTW you don't get FREE land with Premium. You get tier waived on your first 512m of land. you still have to buy it. If camping and surveys are how you chose to fund your SL, that's fine. But perhaps you need to dial down your spending a bit.

Thanks for the quick replies, and yeah, flat out buying the L$ seems to be a good option.

The only reason I had mentioned selling the freebie stuff is that a lot of them are boxes with the stuff packaged that say "great for starting your own store."

Thanks again!

Hi,
I'm sorry if this message is in the wrong place, I have tried to find the right place by searching, but wasn't sure (I am still very new to SL)
My problem is this: I did two of those surveys yesterday, but no L$ has come to my account, and I went to a "campsite" that said I get L$10 for 10 minutes, so i stayed there for 10 minutes, but no money ~ i am not sure how you actually "camp", does the avatar have to be set to away or something? and I don't know why the L$ hasn't come thru from the surveys ~ don't really want to earn money like this, but this will fill in until I learn more about jobs!
Please help!

Arnella, with camping it's not enough to just stay in the area - you have to stay on a camp spot. That is usually a place to mop the floor, a seat to lounge in, stuff like that. Sometimes you have area campers where you log into a terminal and log out again to cash out.

10/10 sounds like it's too good to be true btw, a high paying camp spot is about 3/10 or even just 2/10 lately. Might be just false advertising to get people there.

Have never done surveys because I'm spreading enough personal info around by simply being on the net, lol.

There are ways of taking them without giving your personal information at all. Of course, my first few days as a noob I NEVER gave bogus info.

Hi Arnella, welcome to SL and the forums. In the future, please feel free to start your own thread if you have a new topic like this.

I've never camped or done surveys, so I'll let someone with more experience give info about that.

It's a double edged sword. Generally people will tell you it's wrong. Some of the items in those boxes have been ripped off for other designers and were never designed to be resold in this fashion. Some of the items were intended for the purpose of reselling, the problem is you don't which are legitimate.

However many people do sell business in a box items, there is a market for it. You'll get abused for selling these items so it's up to you.

Some people will abuse you for camping too.

selling freebies is also a one way ticket to my banlink group. And i doubt i'm alone doing that.

You don't need to go Premium unless you want to own land on the mainland.
If you WANT to go Premium, it's nearly free...if you pay it on the annual plan. Your weekly stipend, plus what you could make by renting your 512 tier allowance to someone, pretty much equal the cost of your annual membership. But you may find it simpler just to buy $L, which doesn't tie you down with "unused benefits" if you decide to leave.

DON'T set up a store just to sell stuff...especially freebies, or those Business In A Box scams.

DO practice building. If you can make nice things on your own, other people will probably be willing to pay for them. This is a slow way to build up a business, but it's how ALL of the successful builders and designers have done it.

Or maybe you've got a great idea for a club. If it's good, others will come and party with you, and pay money for the privilege.

DO stop camping and doing surveys. You're missing most of the fun of SL. Invest ten or twenty bucks in some $L and have some fun for a change!

go premium, use your stipend to rent a piece of land, camp (or work) for spare cash.

/me notes that the OPs question was answered in the first few posts of this thread from 10 days ago and that today's question is in #9


Welcome Arnella!

I'll quote Ava on this one, since I've never camped or done the survey thingy

answered to your satisfaction perhaps, but op has not indicated that their question has been answered

I'll reply to Arnella's question in post#9 by revering back to my post #3.

Forget camping/surveys. You'll spend more money on the electric running your PC doing that than you will make.

Open up a PayPal account, or get a CreditCard if you wish (I have a seperate CC account just for SL (Prevents fraud/theft/LL-screwups/etc). Buy your L$ and enjoy the world.

Little math here for those that think camping pays:
2570L$ costs 10 USD (as of today's exchange rate).

Even with the highest camping rates of 4L$/10 Minutes::
2570 / 4 = 642.5 (Number of 10 minute groups needed. Partial times do not count for camping spots, only whole 10 minute increments)
642.5 x 10 = 6425 (number of minutes needed)
6425 / 60 = 107.08 (number of hours needed)
107.08 / 24 = 4.46 (number of days needed)

So, to make 2570L$ you will need to spend four and a half DAYS logged into SL, and on that camping spot. Not enjoying the world, not seeing anything else. Eating bandwidth for any other online application and computer resources for any other programs. This doesn't take into account times for crashes, sim restarts, RL power outages, etc, etc.

Now, people can argue the 'virtues' of camping all they want, and if you still want to do it to make L$, then go for it.

However, for the time involved, is it really worth more than 10 USD and the slight hassle of setting up the payment accounts?

Your call.
~Jessy

Jessy, she already has a payment source and added it or she wouldn't be able to post here.

-.-

*cue the Homer Simpson "DOH!"*

And I'll take this time to agree with past posts: It's stupid of LL to restrict the forums (esspecially RA) to Payment on File Residents only. The basics are usually the ones that need help the most *Sighs*

~Jessy

Basic accounts can, and do, have payment on file. Basic accounts post here, don't they?
What is stupid of LL is to allow anyone to have an account *without* having payment on file. That is the source of most of the griefing complained about on these forums.